The biggest snooker tournament of the season so far gets underway in China on Sunday when the International Championship begins. This is a really good tournament with the early rounds beginning at the best of 11 frames which benefits both punters and players. Whoever walks away with the title will trouser a cool £125,000 so this is well worth winning.
Recent Winners
2015 – John Higgins
2014 – Ricky Walden
2013 – Ding Junhui
2012 – Judd Trump
The Format
We’ve had a qualifying round for this tournament already so the event is down to the last 64 stage apart from four matches which were held over to the main arena. From the start right up to the quarter finals the tournament is the best of 11 frames and then we get a pair of best of 17 frame semi-finals before the final will be played over the best of 19 frames.
Top Quarter
Defending champion John Higgins heads the way in this quarter. In fact this section has the last three winners of the tournament in it which shows how competitive it is. Ding Junhui has already won back to back tournaments this season and is looking for a quick fire third title here while Ricky Walden will be eyeing up another International title. He’s defending some big cash this week so he needs a good run.
Others in the quarter capable of doing some damage include Martin Gould, Anthony McGill and Graeme Dott. Zhou Yuelong and Jak Jones have had big results recently too and could be a threat.
Second Quarter
This looks a competitive little heat where the European Masters champion Judd Trump leads the way. Shaun Murphy is also in this section although he hasn’t looked as good in recent times. Mark Williams and Marco Fu complete the top 16 quartet in this quarter.
The quarter also contains last year’s beaten finalist Dave Gilbert while Tom Ford, Michael White and Sam Baird are all capable of doing some damage in events like these.
Third Quarter
This is the juicy quarter for the week as it contains world champions and star players galore. Stuart Bingham in the highest seed in the section but all eyes will be on Ronnie O’Sullivan here. Ali Carter and Stephen Maguire also line up in this quarter to make it a really strong section.
Even those ranked outside the top 16 in this portion of the draw can do some damage. Michael Holt, Luca Brecel and Matt Selt have all played in finals in 2016 while Xiao Guodong on home soil can’t be written off by anyone.
Bottom Quarter
This is where the world champion Mark Selby is housed. He was quite open and honest about his form and game in Manchester last week so it will be interesting to see how he goes here. Neil Robertson would rate as the chief danger to him in terms of the seedings but the English Open winner Liang Wenbo might dispute that. Joe Perry is another top 16 player in this part of the draw.
The qualifiers aren’t the strongest in this part of the draw it must be said but the likes of Li Hang, Mark King, Ryan Day and Gary Wilson can all be competitive on their day and if the big names fail to show their best form there could be an upset here.
Betting
I’m going with three outrights in this tournament. I’m taking one main one from the top half and one main one from the bottom half and I’m also going to pay to see if the draw opens up for someone at a huge price.
The main bet in the top half is the 2014 winner Ricky Walden who caught the eye in Manchester last week. One of the reasons why he caught the eye was because his record in the UK is average for someone of his ability and it was interesting that he made the quarter final of an event which doesn’t really suit his strengths.
This one very much does and while he has a couple of tough draws in Ding Junhui and John Higgins in his quarter we know Walden plays well here, indeed he has an excellent record in Asia overall, so the fact he showed some form in the English Open is very much a positive and at 66/1 he’s overpriced here for sure.
They say follow the form horse and I’m going to do just that. Liang Wenbo played snooker from the absolute gods at times in the English Open and now that the dam has burst there are plenty more tournaments in this Chinese superstar. We don’t need to worry about the format because he made the UK Championship final last year over a similar format.
When we look back at the end of the season, Liang’s semi-final win over Stuart Bingham last weekend will be remembered as one of the best of the entire campaign and it is that form which suggests to me he can go well here. He would have to potentially turn over Selby and Robertson on his way to the semi-final but Selby isn’t firing on all cylinders and Liang leads their head to head and he’s only 5-3 down to Robertson. With the form Liang is in he has to be taken at 66/1.
Yan Bingtao caught my eye last week when he came from 3-2 down to beat a Mark Allen who was looking in pretty good nick and on home soil it could be worth paying to see if his quarter opens up like it has the potential to do. We know Shaun Murphy isn’t playing well so it is possible he could get to the quarter final without facing a top 16 player. We know he can beat the big names so he’s worth a dabble at 300/1.
Tips
Back R.Walden to win International Championship (e/w) for a 1/10 stake at 67.00 with Coral (1/2 1-2)
Back Y.Bingtao to win International Championship (e/w) for a 0.5/10 stake at 301.00 with Coral (1/2 1-2)
Back them here:
Back L.Wenbo to win International Championship (e/w) for a 1/10 stake at 67.00 with William Hill (1/2 1-2)
Back him here:
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